Jemma Reekie (December 2024)
It is hard to sum up Jemma Reekie’s 2024. That she failed to make the Olympic 800m final was a massive disappointment, but overall, there were several high points after her first year working with a new coach, Jon Bigg. The year started well with a silver medal in the World Indoors at Glasgow behind Tsige Duguma. Being from Scotland, Glasgow had extra significance for her. “Glasgow is great. I love indoors, and I have had so much fun indoors and in Glasgow. I was so happy to go to Glasgow”, she recalls. “As a Scottish athlete, I could have felt a lot of pressure going to Glasgow because it was Glasgow, and I really wanted to get a medal, but I just had so much fun at that championship, and to walk away with the medal was great. We made such an epic weekend of it, and initially, when I walked off the track, it felt like I had lost the gold. But the athlete who won showed her class by getting an Olympic medal in Paris. Overall, I’m thrilled to have gone to Glasgow and got a medal”.
It was a busy summer, running seven Diamond Leagues and getting on the podium six times, including a win in Stockholm, of which she said: “It was good to run a 1:57 from the front. It is a good way to start the season and run consistent 1:57s and know that there is a bit more in there”. The other Diamond League highlight was London. It was an epic “British Championship” race with Keely Hodgkinson first, Jemma second, and Georgia Bell third – all three running PBs. Jemma said of her 1:55.61 PR: “I had COVID a couple of weeks ago, so I missed a bit of time, so I just wanted to have a solid run out here today. I knew if I was chasing after Keely, I’d run fast. I was pleased with my position”. After running a PR for fourth in the Tokyo Olympics, Jemma contracted Glandular Fever (mononucleosis) and struggled to regain her best form. She had waited three years to set a new PR and was delighted.
The consistency of a win, three-second places, two-thirds, and a fourth in Diamond leagues was pleasing, showing she was ready to win: “Yeah, that’s how it feels to me. Yeah, I want to win every race, but coming in the top three is practice getting into those medal positions, and I’m pleased with where I was this year in those races. The races are…
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